Healthy Breakfast Ideas for Preschool Kids
Preschoolers can easily take 10 minutes to eat a dozen half-filled spoonfuls of cereal at breakfast. Mornings are hectic enough, and unless your preschooler is a fast eater, those few bites of puffed-rice cereal may be his only food until lunch. It can be tempting to expedite his eating by offering appealing, sweetened items like donuts or sugar cereals. A 2010 study at Yale University found that kids will eat twice as much high-sugar cereal as the low-sugar option. However, the extra sugary cereal added only empty calories from simple carbohydrates, not valuable nutrition.
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Scrambled Eggs
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Scrambled eggs offer protein and omega-3 fatty acids in addition to staving off mid-morning hunger in your preschooler. Scramble an egg with low-fat milk and a sprinkling of low-fat cheese to hold the eggs together. Spread the cooked egg onto a piece of whole wheat toast, crackers or rolled inside a whole grain tortilla as breakfast wrap. Mix chopped tomatoes or spinach in with eggs for added nutrition.
Oatmeal
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Plain oatmeal with a teaspoon of brown sugar and half a banana makes a nutritious and complete breakfast for any child. Prevent pre-lunch hunger by buying high-protein instant oatmeal at the grocery store. Slice or mash in bananas or another kind of berry. If you are in a rush, liquefy the oatmeal and fruit in the blender, pour it into a lidded cup with a straw and let your preschooler drink his breakfast in the car.
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Toast and Peanut Butter
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White toast with butter offers little nutritive substance. But a quick upgrade to whole grain toast with peanut butter provides fiber, protein and mono-saturated fats. Avoid using peanut butter with added sugars. Liberally apply the peanut butter and cut the toast into bite sized squares. Your preschooler can eat bite-sized toast with a fork instead of getting peanut butter all over his fingers.
Whole Grain Blueberry Pancake
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Fruit-filled whole grain pancakes offer vitamins and fiber to a hungry preschooler. The blueberries inside naturally sweeten the pancake, making it a healthy alternative to traditional, ultra-sweet syrup which adds only empty calories and sugar. If your child insists on spreading something sweet on his pancake, use a teaspoon of a low-sugar fruit preserve. For breakfast in a rush, make and freeze several dozen blueberry pancakes at once. In the morning, microwave as many pancakes as you need and let your child eat his fruit and whole grain in the car on the way to school.
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References
- Photo Credit scrambled eggs on toast image by Barcabloo from Fotolia.com
